


fake news!

by madlife



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Childhood Friends, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Friends to Lovers, Humor, M/M, Secret Relationship, Summer Vacation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 16:15:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28851930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madlife/pseuds/madlife
Summary: "Hello! This is Donghyuck of Donghyuck Cam with 37.5% viewer ratings…Follow me!"(They're at the beach. It's summer break. And Donghyuck from Donghyuck Cam with 37.5% viewer ratings has some news to break.)
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Comments: 17
Kudos: 213





	fake news!

"Hello! This is Donghyuck of Donghyuck Cam with 37.5% viewer ratings…Follow me!" 

Mark squinted to his left and saw Donghyuck approaching. Donghyuck, glossed with the sun's glow. Black double strap slides glittered with sand. He was gripping the rolled-up sleeve of his shirt just below the elbow; his shirt, the color of the ocean like he had ladled out its waters onto him. He pushed his sunglasses up. Brushed his bangs. Hair, purple, as Mark had suggested once. He digged a hand into the pocket of his flat front shorts and stopped right next to Mark.

Jeno had been filming Donghyuck with Jaemin's camera.

Donghyuck said, "As you can see behind me, we're at the beach. And for this special day, we have—" He beckoned Renjun and Chenle over, who were both walking towards them anyway. 

Renjun and Chenle waved at the camera.

"We have a very special guest today." Donghyuck put an arm around Chenle and reached out to squeeze Renjun's shoulder, then said, "Let's meet our special guest. Here he is. Mark Lee." He turned away from the two and clapped his hands.

"Wait what," Mark said, laughing. 

They all broke into laughter. Renjun went behind Donghyuck and had him in a chokehold for a second, before pushing him and jogging towards Jaemin and Jisung, who were just behind them, silently staring at the waves grazing their bare feet. 

Chenle stayed. "I want to watch this Mark Lee interview," he said, adjusting his shades.

"Mark. Hello. Welcome." Donghyuck held out a hand and Mark took it, playing along. 

Once, when they were in middle school, Donghyuck had been a salesman. He had invited nonexistent customers to buy the laundry drying along the clothesline at Mark's house, shouting, "For sale! Signed underwears! MARK in permanent marker along the waistband! Grab one now!" High school, a weatherman. At the school field under the extreme heat, as Mark was pouring bottled water over his head, right after Jaemin yelled "Sexy!" Donghyuck indicated Mark and said, fist as his microphone, "There's a heavy rainfall right now!" Mark laughed, his open mouth catching some of the water, and so he coughed and coughed and coughed. He heard Jaemin say, "Not sexy!" 

In the present, college, Donghyuck would phone Mark at night, and would sometimes start the call with: "This is 37.5MHz Donghyuck Radio. DJ Full Sun. SunD." The first time it had happened, Mark kept giggling, mumbling repeatedly, "What, what, what, what—" Donghyuck cut him off, saying, "Ah, hyung! Can't you just play along and pretend you're tuning in to the radio?" 

"Oh! Alright, alright. Sorry."

Donghyuck would speak softly, like the soothing whispers of conch shells, while saying things like: "Here's my advice. If you can't help yourself but to stay in the shower for two hours because…you know…yeah, I'm not judging by the way—" or "If you fart more than you reply to Kakaotalk messages, here's what you gotta do—"

Recently, SunD would sing him to sleep after a long day at the university. 

Now they were shaking hands. Mark's gaze glued on skin. Donghyuck had four buttons loosed, spilling a glimpse of collarbones and chest, and all of a sudden Mark felt a desire to dive deep into its trenches. The shades, too, were distracting. Donghyuck released his hand.

"Aren't you gonna take your sunglasses off?" Mark asked.

"No," Donghyuck mumbled, before smirking at the camera. "Okay! First question. What brought you here?" 

"Um. Summer break," Mark answered. He actually enjoyed playing along.

"Yes. And speaking of summer break…" Donghyuck lifted his shades by the temple. "Are you currently dating someone?"

"Huh," Jeno uttered behind the camera. Then his mouth slowly stretched into a tight-lipped smile. 

Mark laughed. "Dude, I can't—what? Like where's the connection."

Chenle stood right in front of the camera and said, "If Mark Lee's dating someone, that someone should've gone through me first." 

Jeno's shoulders were shaking in silent laughter. Donghyuck mirrored Jeno's close-mouthed smile. His shades were like moonlit waters, everything underneath were shrouded and shawled. But Mark could see Donghyuck's eyes boring into him. So Mark stared back through his own reflection. Like how the moon and the sea shared secrets at night. 

"And that's the end of the interview!" Donghyuck suddenly announced. He presented his hand to Mark. "Thank you," he said.

"Really?" Mark chuckled. "That's it?"

They pressed their palms together, then swiftly turned their grip into a bro handshake out of habit, locking their thumbs. Donghyuck patted the back of Mark's hand. Then they quickly let go.

Mark said, "You should get rid of your sunglasses when doing an interview, though."

"No." Donghyuck opened his hand over his face and touched the end pieces of his shades.

"We're at the beach. We need sunglasses," said Chenle. 

"I can't concentrate," muttered Mark.

"Should I still film…" Jeno wondered aloud, but nobody responded.

Donghyuck laid a hand on Mark's shoulder. "Hyung. Let me ask you. Is the sun blinding or not?" 

Mark shut his eyes and nodded, scratching the back of his ear. "Yeah. Yeah. It is," he said.

"Do we need sunglasses or not?"

"Yeah…we need to wear one, but I mean like, when you're doing an interview—"

Just then, Donghyuck smoothly removed his shades and looked at Mark with narrowed eyes, parted lips, one hand in his pocket, skin and skin and skin to explore like the seafloor. 

Mark squealed and squinched his whole body away. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


🐚

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


They did a little photoshoot against the exposed sky, with the wavering waves and spilling sands, and the sea pretending to be the sky, while Donghyuck kept hiding from Jaemin and the shutter of his camera. Eventually Jaemin caught Donghyuck, grabbed him by the back of the collar like a fish trapped in a hook. Donghyuck had his head down, shoulders up, lips in a pout, and they all laughed. They all cringed as Donghyuck posed for Jaemin: he sat on the sand, leaned back, his weight on one forearm, the other arm on his bended knee, hand on his sunglasses. Mark thought Donghyuck glistened under the sun like the sea.

"Let's film a music video!" Donghyuck suggested after a few shots, pulling Jisung down beside him. 

Renjun held his phone up and blasted a dramatic ballad that Mark didn't know, and immediately, Donghyuck theatrically lipsynced to it. He placed a hand over his chin as though indulged in reminiscence, and Jisung copied him. But only for a moment, because Jisung chuckled awkwardly then, shook his head and hands, stood up, and went behind Jaemin to watch Donghyuck through the camera instead. Except Jaemin wasn't really recording him. 

"Oh?" Jisung's brows raised. 

Mark tapped a finger against his own mouth, asking Jisung to keep quiet about it. 

Chenle chuckled. "Sssh…" 

Donghyuck folded his hands as if in a prayer. Then he lied down on his back and pounded his chest as he sang along, extending the other arm heavenward. 

Jeno, mouth agape the whole time, wandered towards Donghyuck, carefully dropped on his knees, and begun covering Donghyuck's torso in sand. Renjun laughed and turned off his phone, shoving it into the pocket of his shorts, then he fell on the ground and buried Donghyuck's feet. Chenle followed. Donghyuck cried, "Mom!" but he remained still. That was when Jaemin started to actually record a video. 

Jaemin hovered around them, filming in different angles, while shouting side comments like, "Wow, creative!" and "Yes! Sculptors!" as the rest of them, including Mark molded a hill over Donghyuck's body, up to his neck.

Renjun looked up at the camera and said, "Welcome to Renjun Cam with 0% viewer ratings!" and then he started hosting a "special segment" on how to sculpt with accurately measured ball of sand, with gentle pats to form a shape. But his self-proclaimed co-host, Chenle, proclaimed, "Just do whatever!" while doing the exact opposite of what Renjun had been demonstrating.

"Actually, this is ChenJi's This and That," Chenle said, striking a fistful of sand over Donghyuck's shin.

Jisung, across from Chenle, asked, "Is that supposed to be our own show?"

"Yeah."

"Why can't it be JiChen."

"Because I'm older."

"Why This and That."

"I don't know. I just thought of that."

Jisung pointed at the camera. "Welcome to JiChen's This and That!"

Chenle peppered Jisung with sand. 

Donghyuck had been smiling and sharing glances with Mark from behind his sunglasses. His bangs matted against his forehead like seaweed. His cheeks, shimmering in sweat and sunlight. Mark reached and brushed Donghyuck's bangs aside, then swiftly, softly, poked Donghyuck's cheek with a knuckle. In front of Mark, Jeno watched with a knowing smile. 

When they were done, they took pictures with their phones, and then they all flee like a colony of gulls to tease Donghyuck, but Mark stayed kneeling by Donghyuck's shoulder, laughing. 

"Hyung…" Donghyuck whined.

Their friends faded into faraway murmurs, just as Mark's laughter died down, until only the whoosh of the hesitant waves ridged over them. The wind whistled secrets. 

"Hyung," Donghyuck repeated with a pout. "I don't wanna hide anymore."

Mark started digging the sand off of Donghyuck, just above his chest, and said, "Me too, you know." 

It wasn't long before Jeno came back grinning. He patted Donghyuck's head, then helped Mark out. The others returned one by one, showing Donghyuck the photos they had taken of him, then the six of them unburied Donghyuck, all the while spilling jokes and sweeping all of the sand away.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


🐚

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


"Dude, quit it," Mark hissed after Donghyuck had swept sand onto his lap and legs for the sixth time. 

Donghyuck bumped his shoulder against Mark's, then puckered his lips like waves and lowered his shades to bat his eyelashes like wings. Mark scoffed and shook his head. But when Donghyuck did it again with a steady, teasing stare behind his sunglasses, Mark's scowl slowly slipped into a corner smile. He silently flicked the sand off of his pants.

The seven of them were just taking group photos cross-legged on the sand, side by side, Jaemin's camera on a tripod in front of them. Donghyuck turned away from Mark and tossed sand to his right, right onto Jaemin. After the third toss, Jaemin clutched a crumbling ball of sand and pitched it onto Donghyuck, who instantly attempted to hug Jaemin while mumbling apologies. Mark stroked Donghyuck's head as he laughed. 

"Can we change into our swimwear now?" Jisung asked.

"Yeah I don't wanna do another photoshoot anymore," muttered Chenle.

Donghyuck leaned away from Jaemin and yelled, "Wait! Stay where you are! Don't move!" He scrambled to get up, scattering sand as he did, and yanked Mark up by the elbow, taking Mark and sprinkles of sand with him.

"What the fuck," Mark grumbled as he almost stumbled and fell, but he allowed himself to get dragged away. He brushed sand off of his pants, as he and Donghyuck faced the horizon and their friends. The tripod behind them. 

"What is it now!" Renjun playfully groaned.

Jisung grimaced. "Can't we just swim…"

Donghyuck raised a hand. "I, Lee Donghyuck, and Mark Lee, have an announcement."

"What?" Mark croaked out, voice too high.

Jeno's back straightened up just as his eyebrows shot up. He blinked at Mark and Donghyuck. Mark shrugged and chuckled, then he angled his head closer to Donghyuck. He lowered his voice. "I didn't know that we're doing it right now. Like right now? Oh my god."

"Hyung. You said we can do it anytime."

"Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. I said that."

"Are you not ready?"

"Nah, nah. I'm ready. I'm just surprised." 

Donghyuck tapped Mark's butt. Then he said to their friends, "This is just a quick presscon. We're celebrities. We don't have much time."

"So. What," Jaemin muttered, their favorite catchphrase.

Mark laughed. "Come on, seriously? Presscon? Celebrities?"

Donghyuck whispered, "It was cool when I had imagined it." 

"Then I'm a celebrity too," Renjun suddenly said. "'Cause I don't have much time for this." 

Chenle removed his sunglasses and said, "I am Mark Lee's manager. What is this!"

Mark couldn't stop laughing, both arms looped around his stomach. "Can we like, stop acting for like, a minute please? Oh my god," he managed to say. 

"If this is a presscon, can I ask a question?" Jeno asked with a smile. "Is the announcement about marriage?"

Donghyuck gasped. "How did you know? Are you Dispatch?"

Jisung made a face as he lifted a hand. "Question!"

Donghyuck nodded. "Yes?"

"When will this end?"

"Next question!"

Renjun raised an arm. "Wait. Who are you again?"

They broke into laughter, clapping with the slaps of the waves. Donghyuck puffed his chest out and pushed his tongue against the inside of his cheek, glaring at Renjun, who was cackling so loud. 

"Okay!" Donghyuck flapped a hand in the air just as birds flapped their wings from the distance, arising all of a sudden across the sky, making themselves known. Donghyuck took off his shades, and hung it over the neckline of his shirt. "Here's the announcement." 

The waves splashed. And splashed. And splashed. Mark could almost taste salt drying his mouth. Sweat rolled down his spine. Donghyuck was rubbing his palms together, hand shaking. A gust of wind suddenly came sailing through Donghyuck's bangs and shirt, revealing more skin. Mark fanned himself with his shirt, then he pinched the bridge of his nose, and closed his eyes shut. 

Then finally, Donghyuck said, "We're dating."

Mark opened one eye to check their reactions. 

Jeno grinned and gave them a thumbs up. Jisung's jaw dropped, wobbling his hands over his face. Renjun clapped, saying, "Congratulations." Chenle said, "Yes. For PR purposes." Jaemin repeated, "So. What." 

Jisung whipped his head around. "Oh. I thought it was true." Then he squealed when Chenle slipped something into the back of his shirt. 

Renjun and Jaemin started a conversation while lazily drawing across the sand, while Jisung was freaking out and Chenle having the time of his life. 

Donghyuck slammed his hands on his hips. He nodded and grunted in a low voice, "Wow. They thought we're joking."

Mark cracked into irregular bursts of laughter, slapping Donghyuck on the back, shoving his body against Donghyuck, smacking his own thigh. 

Donghyuck laughed with him. He crossed his arms and whispered, "Alright. Let's just do it later after swimming."

Mark wiped his tears. "Man…we should've been serious. You shouldn't have acted, you know. Oh my god. This is funny." 

Jeno had been staring at them, baffled, head dipped sideways. The three of them exchanged laughs and shrugs. 

"Welcome back to Renjun Cam with 0% viewer ratings!" Renjun suddenly rose and clasped his hands together. "Now that the presscon is over…"

Donghyuck shuffled towards Renjun and pulled him by the shoulder. Renjun wrapped an arm around Donghyuck's waist, then they both headed near the waves, giggling and attempting to take control of the other. 

Jaemin stood and went straight to the tripod. Chenle followed, suggesting, "Hey, let's see the photos first before we change." Then Jisung, who brushed past Mark, murmuring, "I had goosebumps." 

As they checked the pictures over Jaemin's shoulder, Mark kept glancing at Donghyuck, whose purple hair rippled with the wind, each strand a wave. Donghyuck and Renjun were now running away from the rush of waves, laughing. Watching Donghyuck like this, Mark felt as though everything was muffled down: Chenle's chuckles, Jisung's questions, Jaemin's commentaries. And there was only Donghyuck and his laughter, sounding like the ambience of a conch shell's secrets, secrets wanting be freed like the gulls. 

Now Donghyuck and Renjun were going after Jeno who had just jumped up from his perch on the sand. Donghyuck extended his arm, obviously planning to lure Jeno into the water, but Jeno took Donghyuck's hand and squeezed it hard, Donghyuck shouting a series of _sorry_ s. 

As Donghyuck, Renjun, and Jeno were approaching, giggling on their way, Mark glimpsed at the camera, right when it was showing an image of them lying on their stomach, cupping their own face. They had their heads up, except Mark and Donghyuck, who were leaning their heads against each other. 

Then Mark sensed hands snake around his waist. He knew it wasn't the same backhug Donghyuck would normally do. Confirmed by the way Renjun and Jeno were smiling. So Mark grabbed Donghyuck's hand and spun around, but Donghyuck was quick, immediately dropping his whole body on the sand, Mark almost losing his balance. Donghyuck laughed underneath him, between his legs. Then Donghyuck whined when someone carried his feet for a second, before letting go. Mark _could_ let go of Donghyuck's hands. And walk away. But now Donghyuck was staring at him with pursed lips, glowing like the sunlit sea, so Mark stepped backwards, released Donghyuck's hands, and then fell on his hands and knees.

"What." Donghyuck mumbled.

Mark lowered himself and pouted. He watched Donghyuck's lips part in a huff. Mark mouthed, "Kiss?" Donghyuck looked amused. He nodded. So Mark went down, and down, and down, and Donghyuck rose a bit like a tide, until their lips met. And then they kissed. And Mark dived deep. 

But the kiss was cut short. Because Mark could not hold his giggles.

Jeno had whistled.

Renjun was laughing. "What! Amazing," he said. "What?"

Jisung gasped and stammered. "Oh my, it's true? It's true. What am I looking at?"

Chenle said, "Wait. Lee Donghyuck, you didn't ask for my permission."

Then there was Jaemin's voice drowning out everbody else: "Wow! Sexy!" 

Donghyuck hooked his arm around Mark's neck and mouthed, "Kiss?" Mark stopped giggling. He nodded. So Donghyuck pulled him back down, and then they kissed again. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> [twitter](https://twitter.com/__madlife)   
>  [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.me/__madlife)
> 
>   
> unbeta-ed, slightly unedited... it's nothing much, just something lighthearted hehe thank you for reading!!
> 
> also, characters are the same as my other fic [moon, blushing](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28614072) but the fic's tone and genre are different from this one.... i'd just like to think that this beach was baby shinki's hometown and they brought renjun & chenle (whom they met in seoul during college) with them hehehhe


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